In the unpublished portions of Volume One in this RELOVUTIONARY Philosophy, you will one day read – God willing – about the priority of creating an innumerable number of sacred spaces.
These are reality-shaping-and-shifting locations of grace. Where truth-in-love finds real life. As opposed to what another worldview may claim, these are the only true safe spaces in ultimate reality.
There are many purposeful applications to our present suffering. One of the missional extensions is to connect our personal challenge into life’s daily calling, as these very often become sacred because of the same monumental shift through the Gospel. Death into life speaks into another like little else. Timothy Keller has said, “It is an exaggeration to say that no one finds God unless suffering comes into their lives – but it is not a big one.” The sacred translation of our own suffering is that it may be the conduit that speaks most profusely about Gospel truth.
In my own journey this has been true, even validated through this written-Philosophy-platform. There is a future volume on Suffering, which began simply as one of the chapters, but spoke most manifestly to those reading that beginning, because I had been forced to live this. This is a sign of His grace because I could never do this on my own. And that is the point. When you live out the lines of the Gospel-calm into the heartbreak of existential-chaos, our hubris becomes transformed by the weight of His glory; because at such times our living proves He is enough. Some may believe the uncluttered testimony of words. But more likely, they will be moved when they’re close enough to watch your experienced detail. This then becomes commentary about relationships, but this is another story for a different time.
In light of this flow, and the title of this piece, I want to consider a period in the life of Missionary, John G. Paton.
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This involves navigating some of his narrative.
Against the advice from seemingly many-to-most, Paton left a thriving ministry in urban Glasgow, Scotland; setting sail on April 16th, 1858, for the-then-defined, New Hebrides, which we now know as Vanuatu. For Kiwis, this is our Pasifika-neck-of-the-worldwide-woods.
Arriving on the island of Tanna on November 5, 1858, accompanied with his pregnant wife Mary, this must have felt like the dawn of many new beginnings. It is easy to assume when such a period arrives, a positive ascension of experienced-life will automatically follow. But, this is not as we always expect it. After a matter of a couple of months, Paton would personally dig two graves, for both Wife and Child. Gulp. Swallow quickly. Typing these words or reading these lines does not do that experience justice. But do your best to enter that space. This is well before technology, Millennial. In an environment where your next-door neighbour was more than a couple of cannibals, loving a heathen doesn’t read so painful now.
Paton records “it would be more than vain to try to paint my sorrow!” Words would fail. Just ask Job. How does one articulate the amount of tears and grieving that would follow?! I am thankful for those who have borne this burden because what comes forth denies the final end-power of death. Yet, only divine grace could overcome. Because of our constant interconnectedness, we easily live like it’s not real until it’s on Facebook. If life is lived “Coram Deo,” then the journey is always before the Publisher.
No doubt Paton would have talked to God, but also to himself. It is amazing what you are prepared to do when life has you in a corner. His knees must have become two pistons without-ceasing-and-pumping to get him through this period. Our modern world is so evidently disconnected from the reality of death that we can not imagine. We existentially hide our minds from this looming event. And we do everything possible to fight the signs of decay. This is mostly a masquerade. We reach peak before we are really ready, and then proceed into the process of falling apart, in the slowest type of extended motion. It is not a bad idea to consider what is the point. I know I have. I think it is reasonable for me to say that without God my suffering is purposeless and futile. And because I am only and merely just a collection of atoms, I may as well end this random facade. Why wear a mask when it involves this amount of longing, loss, and pain?
Popular culture becomes enthused about overcoming. And there can be real common grace in this concept. However, too much of the modern philosophy wants to follow through on Nietzsche’s, UberMensch; the fabled Superman. This is the idealised means culture uses to sell, paint, and portray, the way of ultimate gain. The Gospel frees you to be entirely ordinary, because Jesus is the extra that changes this term, and He is our Hero we can not live without.
Pain and trial are also commoners. They are everyday for most anyone wanting to leave a positive mark, and potentially, even more so, when in preparation. The life does not discriminate. The key difference-maker is these are not divinely-forming-definitional-commentary, even as these most-definitely-refine, as they burn.
Through what must have felt like an alien invasion into Paton’s heart and headspace, he states, “my reason seemed for a time to give way.” The faithfully fruitful life is not found through a vapid assortment of inconsequential and superficial detail. It is generally found through carnage; encouraged because of challenge, and existentially encompassed with this provisional Key: “The ever-merciful Lord sustained me.” We are weak, He is strong. We positively sing this in a happy song, but this becomes more existential megaphone, when in pain, and we can not do this on our own. This can be a very sacred space.
The problem when everything is hunky we tend to get more like dory.
And the flesh catches like a fish. It’s a whopper, in that it promises everything, but only steals this concept from your most important parts. At such a time, we prove-in-practice that we actually wanted Jesus for the flashy-temporal-stuff, when He must become cosmic Saviour and real-time-conscious-principal.
Why? Because then our lives find the proper measure and order of flourishing. Although the extent is much more, this is still very earthy and grounded for the now. Biblical Christianity does not mean the popularly-held-notion of forsaking the present for an ill-defined future of cloud-hopping. It surely means living that future into the now. Get that! When we get the order wrong, we live with an incorrect emphasis, which is confirmed by our lack of engagement with this world’s pain. See; it really wasn’t a scary concept. This means life now is relishing the Jesus-defining greater joy through each successive moment, with the best bits still to finally arrive.
When we do it our way, this becomes code for the flesh, and so, existential failure.
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Now for the otherworldly translation into this talk about a sacred space in the life of John G. Paton. We are here now. Finally, you may be thinking. The other side of my personality emphathises.
This place of death and burial for Paton’s family, in his own words, “became my sacred and much-frequented shrine.” This was the place where a journey found a conclusion, and a new title worked its opening. And in kind, God wants to turn your dark places into light-moments of His grace. It is often in these places that His grace most radiates.
It is so easy to quickly ask about the impact of the life of John G. Paton. There was some. It is not beside the point. But to expect-like-we-require that unless it is game-changing-awesomeness, the truth doesn’t apply is foolishness. The divine math does not work like simple addition, or, just adding water. We easily veer toward pragmatism. Any practical edge must never be about perceived ends justifying any means.
For the record, I think it is fair to say the result was revival, which is amazing, but still, we remember and integrate Jeremiah.
And what could this mean for you, Dear Reader? Naked conversations. Come again. And I didn’t mean that type of personal. But this is another theme in RELOVUTIONARY. I’d like to think Christians could be the most rightly open about their journeys now redeemed to the glory of God. After all, He is authoring it. Hmmm. What have you got to hide in the Gospel? To be sure, this does not require an exact play-by-play recital to comply. But, it should mean you are most free to willingly share when the time is right, because your life is now forever defined by what Jesus has already done. And like the best credit on any card, it has already been applied.
Consider your journey. Consider how the Spirit of God may want to use your weakness to magnify His strength. This is the type of Gospel-defining vulnerability that needs to be shared.
Again, what have you got to lose? You do realise you are not saving yourself through your perfect record?
Good answer, but there is a time to prove it. Maybe you just need the eyes to see it. You have been forewarned.
Sacred Spaces: Occasions by God. Applications by Man.
Time to get locational.
For the Fame of His Name
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Credit for the quotations and historic detail: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/you-will-be-eaten-by-cannibals-lessons-from-the-life-of-john-g-paton.